RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE 27 July 1999
HUNGARIAN PREMIER LINKS VOJVODINA AUTONOMY TO TIES
WITH CROATIA... Addressing a meeting of Hungarian
ambassadors on 26 July, Prime Minister Viktor Orban
said his government wants to see "more concrete
results" in the coordination of policies with
neighboring countries. Orban said he expects the
Hungarian diplomatic mission in Croatia to "do more"
to promote the "good strategic alliance" between the
two countries, stressing that cooperation with Zagreb
is "essential" in finding a solution to the problems
faced by the Hungarian minority in Vojvodina, "Magyar
Hirlap" reported, citing anonymous sources that
attended the closed-door meeting. MS
...WHILE EXTREMIST HUNGARIAN LEADER WANTS TO 'RESCUE'
PROVINCE'S MAGYARS. Hungarian Justice and Life Party
chairman Istvan Csurka on 26 July said his party is
starting a campaign aimed at "rescuing the Hungarian
minority" in Vojvodina. The drive is to be launched at
20 August ceremony on Heroes' Square in Budapest.
Csurka said that he has not changed his opinion that
only a revision of borders can save the province's
ethnic Hungarians, who, he said, are now at risk of
being outnumbered by Serbian refugees from Kosova.
Csurka added that leaders of Hungarian minorities in
neighboring countries have been invited to attend the
ceremony, but he declined to give names, "Magyar
Hirlap" reported. MS
ROMANIAN OPPOSITION PARTY CONTINUES 'TRANSYLVANIA
OFFENSIVE.' Party of Social Democracy in Romania
(PDSR) chairman Ion Iliescu on 26 July said Hungary
has no right to criticize Romania's minorities
policies as long as "it has not set its own house in
order" and pursues a policy of assimilation toward its
own ethnic minorities. Adrian Nastase, PDSR first
deputy chairman, said three days earlier that the
setting up of a Hungarian-language state university
"makes no sense in a unitary state, where a state
university in a language different from the official
one is inconceivable." On 25 July, Nastase elaborated
that "one cannot accept the existence of two types of
nationalism, a good one that is Hungarian, a bad one
that is Romanian." He said that Romania must not
become the "practice ground for all sorts of
revisionist sharp-shooter formulas." MS
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